No one wants to imagine the worst to happen – but just in case, Clarkston Community Schools wants to be prepared.
“School safety has been our number one priority,? said Deputy Superintendent David Reschke.
The Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Grant was awarded for the consortium of school districts including Clarkston, Lake Orion and Oxford According to a presentation at Monday’s Clarkston Board of Education meeting, 108 grants were given throughout United States. Clarkston was awarded $249,074 from the U.S. Department of Education.
The grant funds school districts’ expanded emergency management plans. The three districts combined together to create North Oakland County School Safety, coordinating with Oakland County Emergency Response.
Reschke said Clarkston Community Schools is the fiscal agent overseeing the use of the grant funds and Reschke is theproject manager for the grant.
Clarkston can improve plans addressing four phases of emergency management: Prevention-Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. The districts will work with all community resources including police and fire departments.
‘Having collaboration with local districts and open communication is key to maintaining a safe environment,? said Reschke.
The grant gives the district an opportunity to test communication within the community to alert for a crisis situation and practice so everything is ready if the time comes.
‘We applied for the grant so that we could continue to build our readiness for any emergency situation that might occur,? said Reschke.
They will practice drills, evacuations, and internally and externally lockdowns. Simulations will take place, such as an infectious disease outbreak to make sure the schools have a procedure and see if it can be improved.
Crises could include school shootings and chemical spills. They find out what they need to do and the training goes into more detail by exploring questions – what happened, why did the incident happen, and what can be done about the situation.
During scenarios, staff share concerns and get more information about what to do and when to call for help. Employees can also be assigned to be in charge of injuries, getting the team back together, and grouping the students together.
The staff will learn how to help the emergency responders so they can help children more in need.
‘The first 15 minutes is crucial when someone enters the building,? said Dr. Stephanie Daly.from EduTech Solutions, Inc. and is a key coordinator for all the grant activities.
Emergency responders will also practice their own protocol with the schools and work on ways to improve on the response.
Students can also participate in the exercises to anticipate what to do. Clarkston will work on developing video for future training of staff members.
After the presentation Reschke said the district is already steps ahead because protocols are in place and they have emergency response manuals to help teachers and any member of the district to help a student in any crisis ? especially having an anxiety attack, diabetic or goes missing.